Italian climber seen stumbling down K2 just days after 11 fellow climbers perish on deadliest day of disaster

An Italian climber has been seen stumbling down the world's second highest mountain K2 just days after 11 fellow climbers were killed.

A frostbitten Marco Confortola was seen slowly climbing down to a height where he could be reached by a rescue helicopter. In the mean time three Pakistani high altitude porters and an American climber are climbing up to him.

Retired Brigadier Mohammad Akram, vice president of Pakistan's Adventure Foundation said "People at the base camp are continuously monitoring his movement and praying for his return.

At least nine mountaineers died near the summit of K2 when a huge chunk of ice sheared off the mountain and hit them

"His movement is very slow because of frostbite and he would soon reach soon Camp 1, which is little over 6,000 metres," Mr Akram said.

Catastrophe struck on Friday, when a chunk of falling ice tore fixed lines from a perilous steep gully known as the Bottleneck high on the peak, stranding climbers in the 'Death Zone', where bodies begin degenerating because of lack of oxygen.

The helicopter picked up two Dutch climbers today and was due to return for the Italian climber who was still on the remote 8,611 metre (28,240 foot) peak deep in the Karakoram range, bordering China.

"It's been confirmed now that 11 people were killed in the accident. It's the worst one on any of our peaks," Shahzad Qaiser, Pakistan's Tourism Ministry secretary, said.

Rescuers were unsure whether anyone else was missing.

Several expeditions were on the 28,251ft mountain in northern Pakistan. The dead included three Koreans; two Nepalis; two Pakistani high altitude porters; French, Serbian, and Norwegian climbers; and a Irishman Gerard McDonnell, earlier listed as missing.

Several died when an ice wall collapsed and tore away the fixed lines they were relying on to return after summiting K2 on Friday. Others succumbed in the freezing, oxygen-starved air, stranded at an altitude known as the "Death Zone".

Climber Gerard McDonnell, from Limerick in southwestern Ireland, poses in his ice cave

Questions will inevitably arise over whether the climbers' judgment was fatally clouded by desire to reach the summit, a condition known in mountaineering circles as "summit fever".

Some teams reached the top in darkness after 8.00 p.m. on Friday, according to Nazeer Sabir, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

Critics spoke of summit fever in the wake of the previous deadliest day in K2's history, August 13, 1995, when six people fell or disappeared during a storm, including British female climber Alison Hargreaves.

Risks multiplied when small teams made simultaneous summit bids, according to Sher Khan.

"People are not learning from history," Khan said.

"Whenever small groups combine, thinking it will be easier for them to go to the summit ... in the end this is what happens.

Those comments echoed Khan's former climbing partner, the legendary Italian alpinist Reinhold Messner, who says commercial mountaineering had led to more fatalities.

"They are strong people, but they do not now how to react ... They don't know how to behave in the case of emergencies - in the case of missing ropes, in the case of bad weather," he said.

K2 is considered technically more difficult to climb than Mount Everest, and while more fatalities have occurred on the latter, statistics show the risks of dying are far greater during the descent after summitting K2 than for other mountains.

Climber Gerard McDonnell, from Limerick in southwestern Ireland, poses in his ice cave

More than 70 climbers have died on K2. In mountaineering records the ones who lost their lives after conquering the mountain have an asterisk by their name.

The Korean team lost five members, including the two Nepalese, in the ice fall.

'They were returning from the summit when an avalanche at the Bottleneck hit them,' Ghulam Mohammad, owner of Blue Sky Travels and Tours, said.

The sky was clear and there were no forecasts of bad weather when the accident happened, said tour operator Asghar Ali, who reported all members of his expedition were accounted for.

A team of climbers had begun ascending to take supplies up the mountain, while helicopters were being organised to bring injured climbers down on Monday morning.

A spotter plane has been on stand-by, waiting for clouds to clear, before flying over the flanks of K-2 to look for those still missing.